Among “Game of Thrones” fans, a common fear is that the blockbuster HBO series will overtake George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels and wrap up the story before Martin finishes the final two books in the series.
The upcoming fourth season of “Game of Thrones” will adapt the remainder of Martin’s third book in the series, “A Storm of Swords.” After this season, there are only two more novels from which the “Game of Thrones” TV series can draw upon before running out of material. Martin is reportedly writing the sixth novel, but he doesn’t tend to be a very fast writer when it comes to A Song of Ice and Fire.
While speaking with Vanity Fair, “Game of Thrones” showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff addressed the difficulties of adapting a story that isn’t finished. Benioff also related that Martin has given them an advance look at the end of the story and the fates of the major characters.
“t’s a little complicated, because we have the five books, but then we don’t have anything beyond that, because he’s still working,” explained Benioff. “ It’s sort of an unusual position in terms of adaptation because, you know, we’re catching up. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. And we’ve talked to George. The lucky part is that George works with us and he’s a producer on the show.”
“Last year we went out to Santa Fe for a week to sit down with [Martin] and just talk through where things are going,” continued Benioff. “Because we don’t know if we are going to catch up, and where exactly that would be… if you know the ending, then you can lay the groundwork for it. And so we want to know how everything ends. We want to be able to set things up. So we sat just down with him and literally went through every character and said, “So what’s the destination for Daenarys? And Arya?”
“In some case he had very definite ideas,” added Weiss. “And in other cases he had left those story lines more open, for the time being.”
Despite rumors that Benioff and Weiss have settled on a seven season lifespan for “Game of Thrones,” they seemed to waver between seven or eight seasons.
“We know there’s an end somewhere in the seven- or eight-season zone,” noted Weiss. “It’s not something that goes ten, eleven — it doesn’t just keep on going because it can. I think the desire to milk more out of it is what would eventually kill it, if we gave in to that.”
“Game of Thrones” Season 4 will premiere on HBO on Sunday, April 6.
